Points of Trivia: The Mind of Evil

By Paul Scoones

The Passage of Time

Day One: 'Today's the first ever World Peace Conference,' says Jo. It
is also the day that UNIT is charged with the transportation of the Thunderbolt
missile, and the day that the Keller Process is demonstrated for the first time
at Stangmoor Prison. The Chinese Delegate is murdered by Captain Chin Lee
sometime between when she entered the delegate's suite at precisely 12 noon,
and 12:14, when she phoned the Brigadier to report the death. Mike Yates orders
the convoy transport for 'tomorrow'. Mailer takes over Stangmoor Prison in the
afternoon, and retains control through the night. Chin Lee attempts to kill the
American Delegate, Senator Alcott, in the evening, after dinner.

Day Two: The Doctor wakes the Brigadier, who has been dozing at his
desk apparently all night. He interrogates Chin Lee. Mike Yates picks up his
escort at 07:00 hours and rendezvous with the missile transport at 08:15. He
encounters difficulties with getting the convoy ready, delaying his plans. He
calls the Brigadier with this news, informing him that he hopes to be back on
schedule by the middle of the following day by driving through the night. Jo
foils Mailer's takeover of Stangmoor, but soon the Master takes control. The
Doctor arrives at the prison and after almost dying under the influence of the
Keller Machine, is put in a cell with Jo, and is in a coma during the night.
During the night, Mailer suggests to the Master that they escape before
daybreak, but the Time Lord disagrees, and instead tells him about his plans to
hijack the thunderbolt missile. The missile convoy drives through the night...

Day Three: The missile convoy is hijacked. The Doctor regains
consciousness and he and Jo escape from their cell after throwing their
breakfast at the guard. The Doctor ends up helping the Master to control the
Mind Parasite. UNIT plan their assault on Stangmoor. The Doctor and Jo are
locked back up in their cell for the night. Jo complains about not having had
anything to eat since breakfast, and the Doctor tells Jo about Raleigh and the
Tower of London.

Day Four: UNIT makes what appears to be a dawn raid on Stangmoor. The
Brigadier greets the man at the gate with 'Morning.' The missile and the Mind
Parasite are destroyed.

The Time of Year: The only indication given, apart from the abundance
of leaves in the park (suggesting autumn), is that it is apparently some time
until the end of the year, as Mailer says 'and so is Christmas!' - a complaint
at how long his food is taking to arrive.

UNIT

Doctor Kettering hasn't heard of UNIT. The organisation was formed 'to deal
with new and unusual menaces to mankind', according to the Doctor. It is
clearly some time since UNIT last dealt with the Master as the Brigadier does
not immediately remember him.

UNIT Call-Signs are as follows: 'Jupiter' is UNIT HQ; 'Venus' is Mike Yates
when in charge of the missile convoy; 'Windmill 347' is the Brigadier's
helicopter; 'Trap One' is UNIT's Mobile Control; 'Greyhound Seven' is a
surveillance post watching the prison and 'Greyhound' is the Brigadier, when
commanding the prison raid. (In the novelisation Mike Yates is 'Trap One', and
Major Cosgrove is 'Trap Four').

The Doctor

'I am a scientist, and have been for many thousand -' says the Doctor before
he stops. The implication is that the next word would have been 'years'. He
incapacitates Mike Yates momentarily, and explains that he used 'Venusian
Karate' - which could be the first mention of it in the series. We learn more
about Time Lord biology when it is revealed that if one of the Doctor's hearts
were to stop beating, he would die; and the Doctor tells Jo that he has the
'wrong metabolism' for the medicine she tries to give him, explaining that 'It
would probably kill me.' The Doctor says 'sometime ago I witnessed a terrible
catastrophe. A whole world disappeared in flames.' He is almost certainly
referring to the events of Inferno (especially since Don Houghton wrote both
stories).

The Doctor tells Jo a story about how he once shared a cell with Walter
Raleigh in the Tower of London during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This was
probably about 1592, the time of an incident in which Raleigh lost the Queen's
favour and was disgraced for seducing a lady in waiting. He was later
imprisoned in the Tower for thirteen years during the reign of James I.

In reference to the Chinese Hokkein dialect, the Doctor says 'It's many
years since I've had a chance to use it' - but he is still very fluent in it.
He is less familiar with the Cantonese dialect. He used Hokkein with Mao
Tse-tung (in the novelisation the Doctor says the it was on the Long March
(1934-35), a journey made by Chinese communists). The Chinese delegate Fu Peng
refers to Mao's name in the present tense (Mao Tse-tung died in 1976). Fu Peng
invites the Doctor to dine with him - but does he ever do so?

The Keller Machine

'Something's been worrying me about this Keller Process ever since I first
heard of it,' says the Doctor, and Governor Camfield says 'There's been nothing
but trouble since that machine was installed.' The Keller Machine has been
installed 'nearly a year' - Emil Keller (the Master) came over from Switzerland
with Chin Lee, whom he met at an embassy reception, to do it, but it hasn't
been used in all this time. There were 112 cases in Switzerland, and Barnham is
the 113th, the first case to be processed at Stangmoor. The machine seems to
affect its victims physically as well as mentally - Arthur Linwood, who had a
fear of rats, has bites and scratches on him, and Doctor Kettering's lungs are
full of water in a perfectly dry room; but the Doctor is apparently unharmed by
the fire he experiences, although the coil rigged up by him catches fire when
he tries to place it over the machine. The Mind Parasite creature is clearly
just one of an entire race, as the Doctor is already familiar with them. He
describes it as the 'deadliest threat to Mankind since the beginning of time.'